Hungarian.  A natural son, Hunyadi John, called so after the great man.  He would have been universally acknowledged as King of Hungary but for the illegitimacy of his birth.  As it was, Ulaszlo, the son of the King of Poland, afterwards called Ulaszlo the Second, who claimed Hungary as being descended from Albert, was nominated king by a great majority of the Magyar electors.  Hunyadi John for some time disputed the throne with him; there was some bloodshed, but Hunyadi John eventually submitted, and became the faithful captain of Ulaszlo, notwithstanding that the Turk offered to assist him with an army of two hundred thousand men.

Myself.  Go on.

Hungarian.  To what?  Tche Drak, to the Mohacs Veszedelem.  Ulaszlo left a son, Lajos the Second, born without skin, as it is said, certainly without a head.  He, contrary to the advice of all his wise counsellors,—­and amongst them was Batory Stephen, who became eventually King of Poland—­engaged, with twenty-five thousand men, at Mohacs, Soliman the Turk, who had an army of two hundred thousand.  Drak! the Magyars were annihilated, King Lajos disappeared with his heavy horse and armour in a bog.  We call that battle, which was fought on the 29th of August, 1526, the destruction of Mohacs, but it was the destruction of Hungary.

Myself.  You have twice used the word drak, what is the meaning of it?  Is it Hungarian?

Hungarian.  No! it belongs to the mad Wallacks.  They are a nation of madmen on the other side of Transylvania.  Their country was formerly a fief of Hungary, like Moldavia, which is inhabited by the same race, who speak the same language and are equally mad.

Myself.  What language do they speak?

Hungarian.  A strange mixture of Latin and Sclavonian—­they themselves being a mixed race of Romans and Sclavonians.  Trajan sent certain legions to form military colonies in Dacia; and the present Wallacks and Moldavians are, to a certain extent, the descendants of the Roman soldiers, who married the women of the country.  I say to a certain extent, for the Sclavonian element both in blood and language seems to prevail.

Myself.  And what is drak?

Hungarian.  Dragon; which the Wallacks use for “devil.”  The term is curious, as it shows that the old Romans looked upon the dragon as an infernal being.

Myself.  You have been in Wallachia?

Hungarian.  I have, and glad I was to get out of it.  I hate the mad Wallacks.

Myself.  Why do you call them mad?

Hungarian.  They are always drinking or talking.  I never saw a Wallachian eating or silent.  They talk like madmen, and drink like madmen.  In drinking they use small phials, the contents of which they pour down their throats.  When I first went amongst them I thought the whole nation was under a course of physic, but the terrible jabber of their tongues soon undeceived me.  Drak was the first word I heard on entering Dacia, and the last when I left it.  The Moldaves, if possible, drink more, and talk more than the Wallachians.